The second match in four days for Sergio Pellicer’s men, with the coach making his away debut in the dugout. The Malaguista coach made three changes to the starting-11 in regard to the line up against Ponferradina, namely: Diego González in place of Juande on the left, Benkhemassa for Pacheco in midfield and Hicham for Renato on the right.
The first quarter of an hour involved back and forth between both teams without any danger in either area. The Malaguista right wing remained active with Cifuentes and Hicham going for depth. In 20’, Benkhemassa was shown the yellow card, the fifth in a cycle, which carries federative suspension. The first half advanced on this cold night in Madrid without any major changes.
Just before half-time, Juanpi assisted Sadiku from a set piece with the striker heading the ball into Biel’s goal. However, after a VAR revision, the goal was disallowed for being offside. At half-time the scoreboard remained 0-0.
Pellicer didn’t hesitate to make his first change in the second half. Dani Pacheco joined the game in place of Benkhemassa (55’), with the aim of bringing more verticality. Shortly afterwards came the first big opportunity for the locals. Captain Juanma, from a corner kick, sent the ball high on the edge of Munir’s area. Mere’s men enjoyed their best minutes of the game, although Málaga remained solid in defence awaiting a rapid transition.
The pitch was extremely slippery and affected the technical actions, impeding football to develop in the wide area. In minute 70, Buenacasa came on in place of homegrown player, Antoñín on the attack. Sadiku, in goal, cleared a rival header from a dangerous corner in 73’. VAR came into play again to disallow another goal, in this case for Fuenlabrada, in 79’. Three minutes later, due to injury, Buenacasa was substituted by Boulahroud.
Before the 90th minute, Sadiku could have tipped the balance with a header that sailed over the crossbar. In 92’, Caye Quintana responded with a shot near the left post. The final stages of a game that ended how it started, with 0-0 on the scoreboard. The eighth match without defeat for Málaga CF in LaLiga SmartBank to reach 27 points (16th place) out of 24 matches.
